Evil Dead (1981) movie review

Evil Dead released in 1981, it is an over the top gore filled supernatural horror movie, directed by Sam Rami and starring Bruce Campbell. It is a movie that mixes elements of slapstick comedy, with extreme gore of a slasher film, and HP Lovecraft inspired supernatural elements, which actually work in creating a great b-horror movie. The movie starts out with a car load of friends traveling through the mountains to a very remote cabin. When they get to the cabin one of the girls subconsciously draws a book with a grotesque face on it. Later they hear a sound in the basement and go to investigate, finding a book with a face on it bound in human flesh and penned in human blood, and a tape recorder. They play the tape recording which summons an unspeakable demon (which we never actually see, in true Lovecraftian fashion), and one by one the group gets possessed, with our hero Ash fighting them off, and being forced to slaughter his friends one by one. The movie is so gory that it received an X rating, and in the UK was deemed a video nasty, and was even banned in some countries, despite this the movie was very successful in the box office, and highly praised by the critics. This movie goes straight for the gross out, and it gets across serious scares without ever taking itself too seriously. I love the minimalism of sets, and characters it helps to create the isolated feel of the movie. This movie has become an iconic b-horror movie, and one of the most successful low-budget horror movies. I have always loved this movie, it has always stood apart from the mass of low-budget horror movies on the market. I find it interesting that low budget-horror movie directors like Sam Rami and Peter Jackson have gone on to make extremely huge large budget non-horror movies, which they have become well known for. Would I recommend this movie? Yes absolutely, I mean this is a movie that pushed the boundaries of gore and violence in movies, as well as the unique style of filming that was used, this is an amazing comedic horror movie, that successfully uses both gross out and actual horror elements to create a truly terrifying movie, that isn't afraid to laugh at itself. Great movie, maybe not for everyone, but definitely one of my favourites.